NBC Sunday Broadcast of TEB (i.e. Men & Ladies)

Just got through watching this on NBC (got over at 12PM PST).

Here are my thoughts:

MEN

Oda rules!!!!! I recall seeing his face once before at Worlds last year, and he impressed me a bit then, but nothing like today. Everything was perfect ~ program, personality, magnificent jumps, et al ~ his coach/choreographer/et al found the perfect vehicle in which to present Oda. Charlie Chaplin is Oda.

Rippon ~ he reminds me a lot of Tim Goebel with his high shoulders, wish he would lower them a bit, otherwise not bad, not bad at all. I LOL when I heard Scott Hamilton say that Adam wants to call his 3L the "Rippon Lutz" due to the fact that he does it with *both* hands over his head.

Sorry, no thoughts really on the rest of the men, thought the results were spot on.

LADIES

Zhang ~ watched this live on icenetwork the other day (btw my IN reception in terms of quality of picture is just as great as my HD television one; really not that much difference at all, so glad I have an automatic subscription renewal to IN). Back to Caroline, my feelings are exactly the same as yesterday, she's exquisite. Just needs to fix the technique on her jumps & also her SPEED. If she can fix these to a passable level by Nationals, continued with her strong mental toughness & land the jumps, then she belongs on the Team.

Gilles ~ great senior debut on the international scene by Alexe! Just needs to continue to improve on landing her jumps (her technique & speed are good, no problems there, but could always do with improvement & being better). And the Eggbeater I Spin at the end has got to go, doesn't look good at all IMHO. Other than that, very good, the future of the US Ladies doesn't look as dismal.

Asada ~ very good comeback by Mao! Not soup yet, gradually getting there one-by-one, has improved from Japan Open, but more importantly it was good for her psyche to recover from the disastrous start to her SP on Friday. What I love about this program is that THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO REST STOPS!!!!!!!! Seriously, 99% of skaters take little rest stops here & there, either to breathe/catch their breath after a spin(s), or to shake their booty & flirt with the judges. Not Mao, not Mao, she literally does a full out sprint from beginning to end, her legs don't rest once, ask any skater & they will tell you that takes incredible athleticism! Her legs must have been burning at the end, especially after that incredible complex fast step sequence. That is what I call an athlete, combined with her tall supple body with beautiful posture & super fast speed, all which makes for a Queen (& Tatiana Tarasova outfits her as such, reminiscent of a young Marie Antoinette when she first ascended the throne at age 19 in 1774). When Mao lands all her jumps, this will be a masterpiece... I bow to Tatiana's genius.

Nakano ~ nothing more I can say, perfect music & choreography, et al, for the perfect powerful FIREBIRD skater! Those spins are out of this world, Yukari! WOW!!!!!!!!

Kim ~ Yuna didn't even have to skate clean, as she built up such a huge lead in the SP (deservedly so btw), that she could've just taken it easy & did doubles with a few triples thrown in, but she didn't. She skated like the World Champion she is, with the requisite triples thrown in for good measure. Easy win, well deserved. All the other ladies have their work cut out for them due to the high bar Yuna has set!!!!!!!

THANKS TO ALL THE SKATERS FOR TAKING PART IN TEB & GIVING US SKATING FANS A TERRIFIC START TO THE OLYMPIC SEASON!!!!!

I think they were commenting from the tape, though, rather than having been taped live. It seemed like Scott already knew which jumps the skaters would mess up on, etc.

I thought Yukari Nakano's costume was great. The sleeves were cool. She looked sort of like ..um...a bird on fire?

Also, I think Nakano's leg wrap looks better in pants.

I hate to say it, but looking at the difference between Nakano's performance and Caroline Zhang's, it really emphasized how far Caroline still has to go in terms of getting the audience into her performances.

Oda ruled, this time out!

Originally Posted by *Sniper*

"His next jump, quadruple salch-OWWAHAHAHAHAH.
A little short on rotation."

" Now triple ax-ELLHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Nicely done."

Sorry for the double post, but I had to respond to that one.

Scott is at his best when he is trying to encourage the skaters down at the bottom of the rankings.

"Well, she had a disasterous short program, but now in the long if she can just land this triple toe-looo -- AWWWWWW. Now here she goes for her double Ax...AWWWWWWWWW."

I like Scott. Different strokes for different folks. His shrieking does not bother me at all. Maybe because I grew up in a large family when sometimes a little shrieking was only way you could get your point across. lol

I like Scott. Different strokes for different folks. His shrieking does not bother me at all. Maybe because I grew up in a large family when sometimes a little shrieking was only way you could get your point across. lol

After seeing Scott win so many WC's and an OGM I will always respect him.

But......he did not do his homework regarding Caroline. His comments were fair but he did not seem to be aware that Caroline has grown to Yuna's height. He described her as still being so little and I guess from watching tape from the studio it was not that obvious.

I don't mind his voice but I also didn't mind Button's rambling commentary either.

Scott only did about half of the "Yuna gushing" always heard from the Euro team so let's give him some credit.

I think NBC was using the icenetwork feed, upconverting it for HDTVs (notice the feed wasn't in true HD but was widescreen and formatted correctly?). Save for the interviews and shots of the city, the camera angles were EXACTLY the same as on the IN webcast. They even used the same (ISU) graphics to show the scores (usually they will use their own standard "NBC metallic" graphics package).

Just a minor point, but if a program is upconverted from SD, it should not be advertised as "being in HD". NBC did this with their golf coverage as well a couple years ago (major tourneys were in real HD though)